The War on Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse is on the rise world wide, or so it would seem. The media has given a great deal of attention to this issue but it seems to have gone under the political radar. Every week we hear about another internet predator being arrested for assaulting a child. It is truly sickening at the amount of people willing to do such things. I've talked about this in the past but I think it's worth bringing up again.

Last year, the Harper government made a move to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16. Still not far enough in my opinion but a good start. It really should be 18 to bring us inline with the United States. This was done to prevent older men from having relations with young teens, while still allowing teens to have legal relations with each other. Personally, if I found some 40 year old guy having relations with my 14 year old daughter, even though it's legal, I would probably murder him. I sure most sane and responsible men wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing. However, this does not solve the larger problem caused, at least partially, by the internet. Of course it's not the internet's fault that sick people do sick things but it has made child abuse more accessible, and dare I say acceptable to these disturbed people. Therein lies the problem. How do we fight this?

I think we need to start looking at these cases from a different perspective. These people are obviously mentally ill. This activity is not a sexual orientation. They cannot use the same argument that homosexuals as gays are still two consenting adults who understand what's going on. That is not the case with child abusers. A child cannot possibly consent to those actions. Rather than jail, which has proven itself time and time again, we should label sexual offenders who target children as being criminally insane. As such, they will be sent to maximum security mental institutions. This offers numerous advantages over jail. The public is still protected as these people are in these institutions indefinitely until they are well. It also allows opportunity to study and develop better treatments for this condition, which could be used to hopefully cure these people. Sure, it's a long shot, but it makes more sense than the revolving door prison system that these people are subject too, where they're back on the streets to reoffend rather quickly.

In the mean time, how should our society protect children? Well, keeping offenders off the street is the first way. Being smart is the second. In most cases, the offender knows there victim. They aren't the stranger in the car with candy as most people imagine. Be weary of other adults around your children. That doesn't mean you shouldn't trust people, but just don't let them get too close. Keep an eye on your kids. When it boils down to it, suspicious activity is fairly easy to spot out.